1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging apparatus capable of performing flash imaging with appropriate exposure control and an appropriate amount of flash of an object having a specific color, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-041830 discusses a technique for detecting, when an image of a person is captured, a face of a person within an imaging screen, and setting exposure value to capture a face detection region with appropriate brightness.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-065186 discusses a technique for, when flash-imaging is performed, calculating difference between a no-flash image and a pre-flash image of a flash apparatus, extracting reflected light of an object that includes only the light of the flash apparatus, to detect the specific color using that the light source color of the flash apparatus is known.
However, according to the above-described conventional technique, if the object is near the flash apparatus when the flash imaging is performed, or if an object that specularly reflects the flash light is captured, a dynamic range of an image sensor may not be sufficient, thereby failing to accurately detecting a skin color.
Further, according to the above-described conventional technique, a captured image is separated into blocks and a weight coefficient of an amount of flash is varied at a ratio of the skin color included in a block. Therefore, in a case where a large amount of the skin color is included and an object having a high reflection rate is also included in the block, the block is largely weighed to determine the amount of the flash. As a result, the face cannot be captured with appropriate exposure amount. If the number of the separated blocks is increased, the above-described problem can be decreased, however, a processing time for calculation is increased accordingly.